184 INJURIOUS INSECTS 



issues a moth. The figures show, 114, the male, and 

 115, the female. As will be seen from these engravings, 

 the two sexes differ very materially from each other, the 

 general color in both being glossy steel-blue. 

 This Borer also attacks the Plum Tree, though sin- 



Fig. 114. PEACH-BOEBB MAI<E. Fig. 115. PEACH-BORER FEMAI^E. 



gularly enough, it causes no exudation of gum in this, as 

 it does in the Peach Tree. 



EEMEDIES. As the borer often attacks the young trees 

 in the nursery, all trees before planting should be care- 

 fully examined near the root, and if any are present, 

 they may be readily cut out. In large peach orchards, 

 " worming " is a part of the labor of cultivation. After 

 the harvest, hands are employed to examine every tree 

 for borers, and the more careful cultivators examine the 

 trees in the spring also. The eggs are deposited from 

 the middle of June, occasionally until October, at the 

 surface of the ground. The grubs so soon as hatched, 

 bore their way through the bark, and enter the sap- 

 wood. An exudation of gum at the base of the tree, is a 

 sure sign of the presence of the borer. The earth is 

 scraped away from the base of the tree, and a strong 

 knife is used to cut away the dead and diseased bark and 

 wood, and expose the hole; then a flexible probe, one of 

 whale-bone is preferred, is thrust in to crush the borer. 

 Sometimes as many as five or six are found in one tree, 

 but all must be killed. After the operation the surface 

 soil is drawn up to the tree to cover the wound. Boiling 

 water applied to the base of the tree has been found use- 



